Review – Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

When I sent out a plea for a good fantasy series, my former (SAD!) roommate She was out of the country livin it up in Europe, so she didn’t hear my cries. But as I was looking for books to put on hold at the library, I knew exactly which book she would have recommended – Poison Study. I remember when she read the entire series sometime last year and she absolutely loved it. So I knew that I had to put it on my list. I devoured this over 4th of July weekend and it was everything she promised it would be.

Poison Study is about Yelena, who murdered her former master’s son, who feels no remorse for the crime she committed and has accepted her death sentence. In Ixia, under a military commander’s rule, all murders are punishable by death, whether you killed for self defense or not. There are no exceptions… unless the commander’s food taster has just died. Then the next person who is to be executed will become the next in line, trained by the mysterious Valek.

Poison Study was exciting and had everything I was looking for – danger! Romance! Betrayal! It was exactly what it promised to be and nothing more or less. My biggest complaint with the novel was the romance. Though I don’t want to give away who it is, I will say that I found it to be a little underdeveloped. I wanted there to be more explanation and more development between Yelena and her love. I’m told we learn more about him in the following books, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Poison Study was not only a joy to read, but it was unique. Instead of a traditional monarchy, there is a militaristic government that adds another element entirely to the story. I will absolutely be reading the next book in the series. This book was exactly what I was craving!

So go read this!: now | tomorrow | next week| next month | next year | when you’ve exhausted your TBR

Yeah, this book was great but at the same time i think the could have made it SO MUCH better if she just went that extra step in developing both Yelena and her romantic counterpart and their relationship. Some other things could have been used a little …something. It’s a decent series, def. better than average.